


Collisions

by FroldGapp



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Black Paladin Week, Daemon Touching, Daemons, Galaxy Garrison, Gen, Keith (Voltron) Whump, M/M, Pining Shiro (Voltron), SHEITH - Freeform, Shiro Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 02:46:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12831678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FroldGapp/pseuds/FroldGapp
Summary: Shiro meets the garrison's mysterious new student and his wild daemon in an unexpected collision.





	Collisions

**Author's Note:**

> https://froldgapp.tumblr.com
> 
> Posted separately from the other Black Paladin Week entries for the daemon bants.
> 
> No beta, which catch mistakes... later.

‘Come on, Kuro!’ Shiro shouted breathlessly, turning mid-run to see the large Leonberger emerge from the bushes and lope after him, tongue lolling. The sun split the trees behind her; a beautiful autumn day.

The Garrison was bustling with activity, new students having arrived just the day before. They moved about the campus in clumps of three or four, birds fluttering excitedly on shoulders, rodents scurrying between feet, and snakes slithering through lush grass maintained only by the indulgent use of sprinklers. Beyond the garrison walls lay the scorching Mojave Desert.

A few students paused to watch him as he sped past, Kuro bounding at his heels, her explorations over for the moment. He threw out waves and smiles at brazen newbies and class buddies, and offered a high-five to one lanky first year with an otter lounging on his head and shoulders. The boy opened his mouth to say something, but Shiro was already sprinting away. It was his final year, and while he quietly enjoyed the admiration of younger students, it would take something remarkable to distract Shiro from his morning run.

A solid mass slammed into his chest, taking him clean off his feet. He hit the gravel with a winded,  _‘Ooft!’_  

Kuro tumbled over him. She yelped in pain, but he realised dumbly it wasn’t from the fall. The sound of another daemon filled the air: hisses and a screeching hoots.

‘Get…ugh…’ A body squirmed beneath Shiro. ‘Get off me, you big dummy!’

Shiro rolled over so he was on his back. The gravel crunched beneath his shoulder blades, and the sun above him was blinding. ‘Ow,’ he groaned, before peeling himself upright. Chaos greeted him.

A low, sandy-coloured cat with impressively tufted ears had wrapped herself around Kuro, jaws locked on her neck. Kuro twisted this way and that, trying to lose the cat but with little success. A slim boy Shiro didn’t recognise had buried his hands under the cat’s body and was attempting to pull her free.

‘Aka!’ he yelled. ‘Aka stop! People are looking! Aka!’

He was right. A small crowd had gathered and watched the circus with a range of expressions from embarrassed horror to sly-faced amusement.

Shiro climbed to his feet and rubbed his head. He’d taken quite a knock and must have absolutely flattened the other boy. Growing more panicked by the second, said boy had taken to pushing his finger’s between his daemon’s mouth and was attempting to pry her jaws free. Blood ran in thin rivulets down his forearms. Beneath his bright red running shorts, his thighs and calves were scratched up badly from the fall.

‘Hey, hey–’ Shiro began placatingly, but a wave of dizziness swept up from his toes and he almost lost his feet again. The boy’s fingers had brushed Kuro’s neck; Shiro felt it as surely as if it was his own flesh. He waited for the expected bile to rush up the back of his throat, but it didn’t come. _Strange._  It was then that red-shorts managed to wrench his daemon free. He stumbled backwards, his daemon twisting wildly in his grasp. Kuro slipped away – as much as a 60 kilo dog could _slip_ anywhere – and joined Shiro’s side. She was shaking.

‘He touched me,’ she said quietly.

‘I know,’ Shiro said, and massaged the slobber-wet fur at her neck. A shiver ran down his spine at the memory of the fingers ghosting over his neck.

The crowd shrank back as the daemon, Aka leapt against her human, claws raking down his shirt and jaws snapping at his face. Her powerful hind legs left deep trenches in the gravel.

‘Aka stop!’ the boy cried, winning a savage bite to the wrist when he caught her head between his hands and forced her to her haunches. He knelt over her, his thin shirt wet with sweat, and held her fast to the ground. ‘Stop, stop,’ he said quickly, quietly.

Again, Shiro approached the boy. His daemon noticed before the boy did and was up on her legs again, scrabbling to get away. The boy jumped to his feet also and she skittered behind him. She hissed from between his legs, uncanny green eyes boring into Shiro’s. A warning. A challenge. The boy, too, looked at him from beneath a heavy curtain of jet black hair. His violet eyes were vicious.

‘What do you want?’

‘Some daemon you’ve got there,’ said Shiro with a shaky smile. ‘What’s your name?’

‘You should look where you’re going,’ he answered and, much to the shock of the amassed crowd, spun on his heel and started walking away.

Shiro sighed and trotted after him. ‘How do you spell that?’

‘Funny.’

The cat daemon scurried ahead of them in a wide arc, glancing over her shoulder with untrusting eyes. Her tail was curled under her but her ears and sullen maw said a solid, _Fuck you all._  Her human was hardly better.

‘I’m Shiro,’ he said to the boy’s back.

‘Good for you.’

Shiro matched his stride easily and motioned with one hand that Kuro should hang back. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I don’t realise my own size.’ He ran a bashful hand up the back of his head and laughed. ‘Looks like I really uh… You fell pretty hard. I fell on you hard.’ _What the fuck._  ‘I fell down.’ What the _fuck_ was he saying. ‘You okay?’

Nothing.

‘Hey.’

‘Just leave him, Shiro,’ said Kuro from behind. The daemon ahead growled.

‘You know,’ said Shiro to the boy. ‘I didn’t run into thin air. And your daemon owes Kuro here an apology. That’s hardly any way to behave on campus.’

The boy stopped and flashed uncertain eyes at Shiro. ‘You a teacher or something?’

Shiro crossed his arms. ‘If I was would you be less of a punk?’

That actually won a reluctant laugh. One beat later, and the walls were up again as violet eyes swung back to the onlookers who at least had the wisdom not to follow them.

Shiro tried again. ‘Shiro,’ he said, holding out his hand.

The boy eyed the offered hand and shook it once. His palms were cool and dry. ‘Keith,’ he said.

Shiro nodded at the daemon who judged the exchange from afar. ‘Some kind of lynx?’

Keith rubbed one savaged hand in the other. She’d really gone for him. Shiro tried to recall ever seeing anything like it; a daemon railing on her human like that. Keith spoke through a tired sigh. ‘Caracal.’

They started walking again. Kuro pressed against Shiro’s legs and examined Keith unabashedly. Keith avoided her eyes with badly concealed shame.

‘What are Kuro’s chances of getting that apology?’ asked Shiro.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Keith to Kuro, though he still refused to meet her eye.

‘I meant from your daemon… eh… Aka?’

Keith laughed: a single  _‘ha_ ’. ‘Slim. She can’t speak.’ 

Shiro tried to hide his shock. Another surprise from Keith and his caracal: a daemon who couldn’t speak.

The conversation ended there with a cursory wave. Keith hopped into a limping run and had soon disappeared over a low rise, his daemon skulking in his wake.

‘He’s trouble,’ said Kuro.

Shiro smiled. ‘I know.’


End file.
